Class of Nuke 'Em High is a case of a film that feels like the
watered down version of gorier, more shocking films, feeling like the version
of a cult movie meant for a teenage audience rather than a film which shocks
even grownups like it should. Whilst it has nudity, gore and adult humour is
palatable for the most part to the point of being juvenile, a transition to
more lurid work in a way that's a detriment to the film itself. Set it Troma Team's trademark Tromaville, New
Jersey, the local high school next to the nuclear power plant naturally has
toxic waste getting into the water supply and punks dealing weed infused and
grown on the nuclear plant's grounds, causing all manner of mutation and death
- a plot that, while exceptionally silly, would've had the potential to be
entertaining. It's not the excess gore or crassness that disappoints with these
sorts of films and that's in fact the reason I would want to see a film like
this, starting off very well with a graphic "melting" incident
involving contaminated drinking water. The problem arises when, skittering
between high school sex comedy and a punksploitation film, emphasising a group
of mutated punks called the Cretins who terrorise the campus, it's a jack of
all traits but not real talent or emphasis in any of its plot points to be
interesting. Even if you're not interested in the films, the type of gonzo
American genre cinema from the eighties that got on videotape side-by-side with
this one and other Troma movies, from
Basket Case (1982) to Street Trash (1987), were far more
wilder and lurid than this one.

It also feels, unlike a film like
the aforementioned Basket Case, to
be improvising to a detriment, not able to fully emphasis any scene after the
great pre-opening credit sequence with enough gusto to keep one on the edge of
one's seat and have your sides splitting in shocked laughter at what it's
getting away with. Ultimately the film's more interested in the most ridiculous
punks you could ever see but even the Cretins aren't enough to save the film;
they're memorable - a leader with skunk-white and black hair, a member in un-PC
brown face with rings in his face and a bone club, a male member with very
natural and prominent breasts under his (hopefully angora) pink sweater - but
unfortunately even they are underused to their potential. Even when the nuclear
power plant plot line leads to a mutant in the finale, it feels like an
afterthought. Production wise it's uninteresting as well, neither insanely neon
or gritty as it should've been, with the terrible habit of playing the worst
hair metal constantly in most scenes. Compared to the other films of this
period and it's not as adventurous as it should've been. In fact it feels like
one of those dull fifties teensplotation films Class of Nuke 'Em High was probably meant to parody, with more gore
and sex but just as sluggish and not giving you the thrill ride it promised in
the poster.

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"I could go on for hours with more examples. The list is endless. You probably never gave it a thought, but all great films, without exception, contain an important element of no reason. And you know why? Because life itself is filled with no reason." - Rubber (2010)

About Me

I am 28 years old and hail from England. For the last few years I have been a growing fan of cinema and have decided to take the next step into blogging about it and any other tangents that about the things I'm interested in I get onto.